Video: Exploring the signal flow of the ES1

Let's explore the signal flow in ES 1. It's like we have seen before with some of the other Logic synths; there are three main components to any subtractive synthesizer: there is an oscillator section, a filter section, and an amplifier. So in ES 1, if you are looking at the top half here, we have got the oscillator section on the left. And one thing that's neat about this is we've got a primary oscillator and then beneath that a sub-oscillator, and we can blend between the two. In the center, we've got a lowpass filter with variable slope and a drive input to saturate the input of the filter.

Join author Brian Trifon as he shows how to improve music and audio productions using virtual instruments in Logic Pro. This course tours the program's virtual instruments, including the ES2 hybrid synthesizer, Sculpture physical modeling synthesizer, EFM1 FM synthesizer, the EVOC 20 vocoder, the Ultrabeat drum synthesizer, and the EXS24 sampler, and shows how to achieve various effects with each instrument's parameters. The course also covers working with oscillators and filters, understanding signal flow, creating custom synthesizer patches, adding effects, synthesizing speech, creating a library of custom sound samples, and much more.

Virtual Instruments with Logic Pro will be updating on a monthly basis, eventually covering all the virtual instruments in the application. Look for the latest movies here and on the lynda.com blog.

Exploring the signal flow of the ES1

Let's explore the signal flow in ES 1.It's like we have seen before with some of the other Logic synths; there arethree main components to any subtractive synthesizer:there is an oscillator section, a filter section, and an amplifier.So in ES 1, if you are looking at the top half here, we have got the oscillatorsection on the left. And one thing that's neat about this is we've got aprimary oscillator and then beneath that a sub-oscillator, and we can blend between the two.In the center, we've got a lowpass filter with variable slope and a drive inputto saturate the input of the filter.

On the right, we've got the amplifier section where we can control the output of ES 1.Beneath that, we have the Modulation section.So, most of the parameters down here are going to control some aspect of thethree main components above.We have this router section, and that's where we can choose the destination forany of the modulation that's happening.So, one of the modulators is this LFO, low-frequency oscillator.It's very much like the oscillators that are above that generate waveforms, butthe difference is the low-frequency oscillator is generating a control signal. Soit's not something that we actually hear;it's just sending a periodic waveform that's going to modulate some parameter.

We choose that parameter in the router that's in the center.Here we have got the Mod envelope, and that's also a modulation source.It's kind of a simplified envelope, much like we've seen with this ADSR orin some of the other instruments we've seen, more simplified attack and release envelopes.So this is a variation on that that can also be assigned to modulate a number ofdestinations that you can choose in the router.The ADSR envelope is wired into the amplifier, so it's going to shape thevolume of the sound.We can also use it to modulate the filter cutoff as well.

Over on the far left, we've also got the glide control.This will allow us to transition smoothly between nodes.We can adjust the amount of time it takes.Beneath this section we've got the global section, so here we can do thefine-tuning adjustments to the entire instrument.It has an Analog parameter here.What this is going to do is it's going to create some randomness in the sound.So it'll randomly offset the tuning and the filter cutoff, just to give it a moreanalog and lifelike sound.We have got the pitch-bend range here, where both positive and negative can go upto twenty-four semitones, which is two octaves.

Then we've got the Output Level. Next to that we've got the Voice controls.ES 1 is a polyphonic synthesizer, so we can have it be all the way up to sixteenvoices, we can set it down to one voice so that it's monophonic, and it hasanother mode that we haven't seen before.If I take this past 16, it's the Legato mode, and what that's going to do isallow us to play notes that are next to each other, so it'll be monophonic, butit'll play notes, but it won't retrigger the envelope.So we'll explore that a little later.ES 1 also has a built-in chorus effect. Taking a look here, it actually has three:there is the Chorus1 that we saw in ES E that's just a basic modulated coursesound; the Chorus2, which is a heavier modulation; and the Ensemble, which has more complex modulation routing for the chorus.

One of the hidden parts of the interface, if you click on this disclosuretriangle at the bottom, is you can adjust the negative pitch-bend rangeindependently of the positive one.So right now, it's set to the same as the positive pitch-bend range, but if Iwant to set it to something different, I can move the slider here and adjust it in semitones. And if I want to set it back to its default, I can holddown Option and click and it's going to set it back.So let's take a look at the oscillator section.

Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

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Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
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